Leads Up to This
by spicehnoodles
Summary: Iris is invited to her employee appreciation party, and Barry is forever her plus one.


"Barry!"

Barry Allen shoots out of bed in a blur. His knees are bent, arms posed for battle. The pose allows his partner to gaze upon his boxer-clad body for a few seconds before remembering what she's excited about.

Kneeling on the bed, Iris West holds up her tablet. She grins widely, eyes bright and wide.

"I've already got abs, Iris … "

She furrows her eyebrows before looking at the screen. A hot flush spreads on her cheeks, and she exits out of the tab.

"I meant _this_!" The correct display is shown.

_**IRIS WEST, you are invited to —**_

_**Jitters's Employee Appreciation Party**_

_**6PM - ? tonight Central City Park.**_

_**There will be contests, raffles and prizes, a photo booth, and live entertainment.**_

**_Attire: Semi-Formal_**

**_*Employees may bring _one (1) _plus one._**

Barry sits himself on the edge of the bed, smiling softly at his girlfriend. "Let me guess: I'm your plus one?" he teases.

Her smile relaxes, turning soft. "Barry Allen, you're forever my plus one."

He drops his face to nestle in the crook of her neck. "Cheeseball."

Once she feels his playful kisses turning into not-so-playful kisses, Iris pushes Barry back with her hands on his shoulders. She fixes a stern look on him.

"No time for that. I've gotta go shopping for a dress," she informs him.

He looks at her confusedly. "Uh, you've got tons of dresses," he points out.

Wordlessly, Iris raises an eyebrow.

In defense, Barry raises his hands up. "Hey, hey! We've been best friends for years, but that doesn't mean I understand the fashion universe you're living in, all right?"

Iris remains silent.

He sighs, relenting toward the unspoken words. "Yes, I'll follow you when to go shopping, and _yes_, I'll offer my honest, helpful opinion instead of saying, 'That looks awesome' for every single dress you put on." He crosses his heart to establish the promise he made.

She squeals happily and wounds her arms around his neck. Bending down, she plants a kiss on his awaiting, smiling lips.

"Love you," she whispers.

Iris will never get over how soft his eyes get every time he looks at her. How could she not have noticed them all those years ago? It seems she was so caught in that one blissful part of her life — when she was with Eddie her forever strong, unbreakable bond with her father; and her deep friendship with Barry — that she let it cloud her judgement. For years, she and Barry were the best of friends. Since she was with Eddie, she had this fantasy that she'd get married to Eddie and Barry would always be there for her, as her best friend. The thought of being with Barry romantically never once crossed her mind because everything in her life before didn't allow that thought to come by.

She has always loved Barry, though. Slowly but surely, she found out that it was more than that.

And he willingly waited for her, whether she knew it or not.

"Love you too," he whispered back and kissed her gently again.

—**0—**

"Don't lie — you totally got inspired by my abs, didn't you?"

"Yeah. _Sure_, Barry. And by the way, not everyone can get struck by lightning and get … that. Some of us have to _work _for things."

"Hey, I work!"

"And some of us actually have to take the train because we all don't have super speed."

"No hating, Miss West. I take the train."

"When you're bored, Mr. Allen."

"At least I take it!"

—**0—**

Barry accompanied Iris when she went shopping almost all the time. He gave horrible opinions because he had no fashion sense when it came to women. At one point, he fell asleep waiting for Iris only to wake up when she was done — done paying for the clothes she decided on by herself _and _eating. So that day, Barry went home starving with an upset best friend.

(He made it up to her by paying for whatever she wanted on their next shopping trip.)

When she was with Eddie, their shopping trips dwindled. The detective wasn't any better based on what Iris ranted about when she and Barry went out for ice cream or a movie.

Now that he was dating Iris — which is a fact he needs to be reminded of, mainly by Iris's kisses and smiles that are now directed toward him infinitely more — he needed to amp it up. It was one thing to provide feedback as the best friend; it was another as the boyfriend.

Iris exited the dressing room, wearing a plum peplum dress. She spun around and placed her hands on her hips.

"First dress. What do you think?" she asks.

He may be her boyfriend now, but — "Felicity likes to wear dresses like that" — it seems his opinions haven't changed. In fact, they worsened.

"O_kay_ … So what then?" Iris crosses her arms over her chest. "Are you saying Felicity would wear this dress better than me?"

Out of reflex, Barry grabs the cushion behind him for protection. "Whoa! I didn't. It's just, well, she _does _wear those all — ," he attempted to explain himself.

His girlfriend giggles. "Barry, I'm joking. Felicity knows how to work these peplums." She turns to look at her body with the full-length mirror on the dressing room door. "My body _so _doesn't match these dresses."

Barry's eyes travel downward. "Your butt looks nice in them," he offers.

She tilts her head and spins to see how her rear end looks. "Yeah. But I can't stop thinking about Felicity's butt when she wears these dresses. I am in awe of her butt. It's _amazing_."

The forensic scientist gulps and clutches the cushion again when his best friend looks at him like she's waiting for him to say something.

"What?"

"Don't you agree?"

"About — About what?"

"Felicity's butt. Her _ass_, Barry."

He gives her a look at her tone and says, "Her butt is … nice."

Iris smirks at him. "I bet you stared at it a lot. You still do, don't you?"

Barry groans. _"Iris," _he whines.

She bounds over him and places her hands on his shoulders, bending down to kiss his lips chastely. "We tell each other _everything_, Barry. I won't get mad. It's _Felicity_, c'mon. Besides, I do."

His eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"Barry. I may be straight, but I'm not _blind_. I love staring at women's assets as much as any other straight dude does."

Barry places a hand on her hip and uses his thumb to rub it. "I think regardless of your orientation, everybody stares at something that's pretty eye-catching."

"Oh, so you think Felicity's ass is _eye-catching_?"

"_Iriiiiis."_

She laughs and continues to do so when she heads back to the dressing room.

—**0—**

"Don't even get me _started _on Oliver's ass."

" … Oh my God."

"He's still on my three list, y'know."

—**0—**

While she applies makeup, Iris watches her boyfriend pick out an outfit for tonight using her vanity mirror. Her eyes narrow when he settles for a red sweater. She spins on the chair.

"No," she says firmly.

Barry halts in peeling off his T-shirt and faces his girlfriend, arms bent awkwardly. "No what?"

"You're not wearing the red sweater; you're wearing the maroon sweater."

He opens his mouth to object.

"Red and maroon are not the same color, Barry."

Once he peels his shirt off completely and approaches her, Iris knows Barry's about to start on explaining something phenomenal in his book.

"The CYMK values show that maroon is 100% magenta. Interestingly enough, red is 99% magenta. So, if you wanna go down — "

"Barry," Iris interrupts, smiling, "you are incredibly adorable when you start going off about things that interest you and scientific whatnots, but we're gonna be late."

Her boyfriend nods quickly. "Oh. Right." He rifles through his closet and pulls out the maroon sweater. "Why maroon?"

Iris mashes her lips together to blend the lipstick. "So we're color coordinated."

"Huh." He dons the sweater and fixes the collar of the striped button-up afterwards. "Why?"

"So we can be the cutest couple there."

Spritzing cologne on his neck, Barry inquires, "For the photo booth?"

Iris couldn't stifle the wide grin. She loves photo booths so much. The plus about this particular photo booth is that the photographs will get developed as soon as they are taken as opposed to the photos getting posted online, the company sending them to you via email, or having to go to their building to retrieve them.

She calms herself down and shrugs nonchalantly. Leaning forward, she checks her lashes for any mascara clumps.

"Maybe." But the grin appears again.

He shakes his head at her, grin just as huge.

**—0—**

"So, are we gonna plan out the poses we're gonna do or just wing it?"

"Plan and wing. In order, serious, goofy, cheesy romantic — like you kiss my cheek or I kiss yours — and then smile."

"Okay, got it. But we do whatever we want?"

"Just have fun with it, Barry!"

"Even though it's 'cheesy romantic' — "

"Did you just air-quote me?"

" — yeah, I totally did — I wouldn't mind doing the cheek kissing."

"Same here!"

**—0—**

For more than fourteen years of his life, Barry has envisioned this type of life with Iris. It's been only a few months since they entered a relationship together. The only change between them is a high intimacy level — oh, and unabashed nudity, which happened eventually on Barry's part.

Iris is his girlfriend/best friend/confidante/love of his life. The former is new, but everything's the same except his happiness skyrocketed past the atmospheres. They've shared a bed before, but now they're _sharing a bed if you get what he means_. They've shared "I love you"s before, but now the phrase deepened to another level than the past and deepens even more every time they say it — which is everyday.

They've never kissed. Barry likes doing it as much as Iris does.

They've never done _more than kissing_ — oh screw it. They've never had sex, and frankly, it blows Barry's mind every single time. During post-coital, Barry vibrates from the adrenaline and ecstasy to the point where he's a blur — the first time, Iris thought he disappeared — and he's currently working on that.

Barry cringes every time he remembers "The Talk" Caitlin gave him once he informed his partners about that. Till this day, Cisco doesn't live it down.

As they wait in line for their turn at the photo booth, Barry admires his girlfriend in front of him. This time, he is not admiring from afar.

She bounces slightly, anticipating their turn. When she saw that the photo booth company brought props, the happiness on her face grew tenfold. Barry just had to stare at her because how does a face like that even exist?

Iris turns to tell Barry something when she catches him looking at her with hooded eyes.

"You look so beautiful," Barry tells her sincerely.

She smiles, and if it weren't for his superhero powers, he might've collapsed. "You are such a dork," she says fondly. She grabs his hands and interlocks her fingers with his, him reciprocating instantly. "You told me that already, you know."

He swings their interlocked hands side to side. "Iris West, if telling you that are you're beautiful was a crime, I'd lock myself up in our meta-human prison forever." He imagines that and shudders. There isn't room to move around in that makeshift cell. "Scratch that, I'd lock myself up in Iron Heights or somewhere comfortable."

"God, you're such a _dork_, Barry."

Finally, it's their turn for the photo booth. Iris all but drags Barry with him almost tripping over his feet.

The cameraman starts the 15-second countdown already.

"Quick! What was our order?" Iris asks quickly.

Barry panics. "Crap, uh, uh, s-s-serious, goofy, cheesy romantic, and smile!"

Hurriedly, Iris plants her hands on her chest and stares at the camera with a serious expression.

He can't help it. He laughs.

The camera flashes.

"Barry!" Iris gasps, though smiling. "You ruined it!"

"You just looked so funny — "

Without warning, Iris plants a cowboy hat on her boyfriend while she dons an abnormally large blonde moustache.

Barry laughs again at the screen displaying them. Iris can't retain her pose because she ends up joining him. The camera flashes showing the couple bent over knees and laughing.

Once the countdown starts again, Barry winks at Iris who winks back. He grabs his girlfriend around the waist and kisses her cheek as passionately as he could. The screen shows Barry looking like he's planting a duck face on Iris's cheek while she looks like she's dramatically swooning with her palm on her forehead facing outward.

"That looks more goofy," Iris comments.

At the final countdown, the couple embraces each other. Iris's arms wrap around his torso, hands resting on his shoulder blades. Barry's hands rest on the small of her back. The last four seconds go down, and then Barry looks at Iris and she looks at him.

The camera flashes.

**—0—**

"It's inarguable. We _were_ the cutest couple at that party."

"See? Maroon worked."

"I mean, just look at these pictures! We probably blew people away with our cuteness."

"Barry Allen, are you seriously …_ fangirling_ over us?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh my gosh, how are you my boyfriend? Hey, don't bend those pictures. They're mine."

"Wh — ? No way, they're mine!"

"Barry, we live together so it doesn't matter."

"You didn't have to say that they're yours then, Iris."

.

.

.

.

.

"Okay, I can't get over how cute we are."

"Right?!"

* * *

><p><em>— Because I was having westallen feelz, so hurr' ya go.<em>

_Thank you for reading. Feedback is appreciated._


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